For getting rid of frustrations, you really can’t beat denting metal with a sledgehammer.

Even better, unbending metal with a sledgehammer.

About a year ago, a dead tree next to the garage let loose. Part of it hit the trailer that we used two summers ago to go out to California. Dented up the one fender and tore off the rear light. Now we are starting to think about using the trailer for hauling stuff, so it needs to work. We had done some damage to the fender just prying it to where the wheel would roll (also deflating said tire to help), so tire off, time to get angry:

Tree damage

Parker had tried to do some whacking on his own, but since we are hitting from below and going up, a lot of energy is wasted just moving the trailer up and down. So we took turns holding it down, made the hammer blows actually do some good.

Making progress and slowly hitting the low spots, we finally got to where it was good enough. A lot of paint flaked off from the hits, and there was rust, so sandpaper was used:

Shiny!

Good old Rustoleum primer comes next:

Why is rust resistant primer…rust colored?

And of course a couple of flat black topcoats.

Nice and black

Last, we replace the light and got the tire back on. A good day’s work!

Now with tire!

Which of course reminded me of the fender on the Moon buggy….never leave home without duct tape! Light works, only thing left